The phrase mergers and acquisitions (“M&A”) refers to the aspect of corporate strategy, corporate finance and management dealing with the buying, selling and combining of different companies that can aid, finance, or help a growing company in a given industry grow rapidly without having to create another business entity. When companies are acquired or merged, it is often the case that data from one company needs to be transferred to the platform of the acquiring company. However, the platform of the company being acquired may be different from the platform of the acquiring company. For example, the acquired company may use SAP® business software, whereas the acquiring company uses Oracle® business software. In such a case, the data must be migrated from one platform to another.
In a typical data migration, the data would be compiled for loading, a load would be attempted into the destination system, rejected records would be analyzed and corrected, and then another attempt would be made to load them. Once in the system, the data would be tested and any which were incorrect would be deleted and reloaded, or more likely would need to be corrected and retested by loading on a new environment.